FRANKSTON Council employees signed to the Australian Services Union have met and voted to “support a no vote campaign” against council’s proposal for a new enterprise agreement.
The ASU is a union representing local government workers. It has approximately 135,000 members.
An ASU statement read that members chose to oppose the new agreement due to “FCC refusing to backdate the wage increase to 1 April 2019, FCC showing total disregard to the lowest-paid workers at council and refusing to increase the wage percentage for bands 1-3, FCC refusing to provide certainty for those members who currently have parking provided” and “FCC implementing a limit on the Christmas shutdown period with some weekend workers now disadvantaged.”
A statement from the ASU read that one point of contention was that “current employees who have access to parking free of charge have been advised that this is being reviewed and FCC have given an indication that they intend to remove that provision. FCC has refused to negotiate this in bargaining. The move away from providing parking will see some members out of pocket, effectively negating a part of any wage increase.”
ASU members met on 11 September to discuss and vote on a way forward for the enterprise agreement.
Information on council’s previous enterprise agreements can be found at fwc.gov.au where the documents are published.